Vanessa
Vanessa is ranked 335th among girls in 2024 (933 births). Its best rank was 41st, in 1988.
- Rank in 2024
- #335down 31 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 9330.06% of girls
- Peak year
- 19857,564 births
- Best rank
- #41in 1988
- Since 1900
- 260,793people given the name
The story in the numbers
260,793 girls have been named Vanessa in the United States since 1900, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1985, with 7,564 births — 0.44% of all girls recorded that year.
It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 171 → 335).
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1989, and the 1980s alone account for 25%. It has spent 75 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 33 of them in the top 100.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Vanessa | |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 6 | |
| 1910s | 35 | |
| 1920s | 51 | |
| 1930s | 124 | |
| 1940s | 295 | |
| 1950s | 19,170 | |
| 1960s | 20,983 | |
| 1970s | 28,077 | |
| 1980s | 65,728 | |
| 1990s | 57,918 | |
| 2000s | 43,229 | |
| 2010s | 19,597 | |
| 2020s | 5,580 |
In 1985, its biggest year
Vanessa was the 42nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1985 were Jessica, Ashley, Jennifer, Amanda and Sarah. See all of 1985.
Names that rose and fell with Vanessa
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Desireepeak 1983
- Denaepeak 1997
- Bethanypeak 1987
- Jaymiepeak 1991
- Jaclynnpeak 1990
- Nidiapeak 1992
- Vannessapeak 1987
- Rebekahpeak 1996
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.